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Comment on "Third Edition of Cocoa Programming"
by The boy Ken — Feb 17
"The fact that the 10.3 version is still most-recommended title on Cocoa programming, I think, speaks to the quality of the book."

Whilst I'm not knocking the quality of Aaron's work (or indeed the craftsmanship involved in his hat), and I look forward to the 3rd ed, I think your point of view is rather one-sided. The fact that there is no serious (up to date) competition means it would be surprising if Aaron's book was _not_ the most-recommended title. For instance I don't believe (but could be wrong!) there are any other physical books that cover bindings at all, so although the 2nd ed is getting technologically old, it's still newer than the competition.

Were there already 10 other new Cocoa books out there, then your statement would hold more water, especially if they were more up to date than his 2nd ed is.

It's great this 3rd ed covers Core Data etc., especially as that can be conceptually difficult for beginners, and also Core Animation etc., it's just unfortunate for Cocoa beginners coming since 10.4/10.5 that they've had no (physical) books to help them learn the new recommended ways of doing things.

That said Apple's documentation has really improved since the likes of mmalc and Scott Anguish jumped aboard, but some beginners like reading real books. Anyway, as I say I'm not knocking Aaron's work, just saying that your interpretation of the stats could be accused of being skewed. That's not to say you're wrong, just that it's impossible to prove your statement one way or the other without any real competition.

Along with Aaron's 3rd ed, I'm also looking forward to the Pragmatic Programmers' Core Animation book. I hope it's not all glitz though (and I've no evidence to suspect it would be...) - I'm hoping it's a book on useful GUI techniques / principles.

Anyway that's my 2 pence (erm about 3 US cents I think)
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